Hey Folks!  Tonight we are down Grace and Ammo but push on with our ever growing list of topics.  We start with some discussion about the Stellaris expansion where you can become the Crisis at the end of the game featuring some interesting asymmetrical gameplay.  From there Bel talks a bit about the current failed state of New World and the degenerative gameplay of “pay for dungeon runs”.  From there we talk about the importance of numbers and whether or not we as players should actually see them.  We wrap things up with a discussion about Game Dev and how what is meant by a beta has changed over the years, specifically with the “very alpha” Star Citizen.

Topics Discussed

• Stellaris
• • Becoming the Crisis
  • Aquatic Races
• New World
• • Failed State of the Game
  • Buying a Seat in a Dungeon Run
  • Patch 1.1 Lost the game over 200k players
• The Importance of Numbers
• • When you want to see them
  • When you maybe don’t
• Game Dev
• • Star Citizen
  • Betas and Alphas
  • Gamer brain vs Dev brain
• Kodra Streaming Speed Runs
• Bel Revisiting Cyberpunk 2077

Tonight we are down a few people for various reasons and Bel is hanging on by a thread because he managed to schedule his Covid booster on Friday.  We start off with a discussion of the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker delay and how in theory we would have all been playing the game in another world.  In news we never thought we would cover, Fallen Earth has come back from the dead and is actually better than any of our memories.  From there we discuss Guardians of the Galaxy, that game we all thought would be another Avengers Flop but has apparently turned out to be pretty dang good.  Bel talks a bit about the Outriders New Horizon patch and the changes it made ot the game including a full transmog system.  Finally Tam discusses his experiences with Star Citizen and how it is way more of a fleshed out game than he ever expected at this point.  Additionally we talk about the free trial that is going on right now.

Topics Discussed

• Final Fantasy XIV Delay
• Fallen Earth rises from the grave
• • Better than our memories
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• • Not another Avengers Failure
  • Fjording the Uncanny Valley
• Outriders New Horizon
• • Balance Improvements
  • Cosmetic Transmog System
• Star Citizen in 2021
• • Free Trial Period

Our general policy of just winging it has bit us in the butt several times in a row.  Belghast solved the fading in and fading out thing, but this apparently introduced a whole new issue.  As a result the audio levels are all over the chart for this episode from barely audible to booming loud.  This left us with the challenge of trying to determine if it was even worth releasing at all.  After some cleaning up the show is in a more manageable state but be warned…  It is not good.  As a result we are going to have to reinstitute our previous policy of doing a soundcheck before diving into the show. 

Tonight Bel talks a lot about his experiences in the end game of New World.  After that we talk a bit about Sable and a pilgrimage to find which mask represents you in the world.  Thalen shares with us DIE a comic and board game about what would have happened if the Dungeon and Dragons Cartoon kids were sucked back into that world again.  Finally we talk a bit about the emotional rollercoaster that is Unpacking.

Topics Discussed

• New World
• • Being Level 60
  • Syndicate Losing our PVPers
  • The Priest Camp
  • The Zerg
• Sable
• • Which Mask Represents You?
• DIE
• • Zumanji meets D&D Cartoon
  • Board Game
• Unpacking
• • Emotional and Literal Baggage

Last week we brought you the Epilogue show for the patch content following the release of Shadowbringers that brings that core story to a close.  This week we dive into the content following that, namely patches 5.4, 5.5, and 5.55 that serve as the prologue to the events that we will be experiencing starting November 19th with the release of Endwalker.  I feel like we probably know less about what is going to happen going into this expansion than we have previously, but we talk about what takes place and what we do know about the future.  We also talk a bit about our mixed feelings regarding specifically the villains that we are going into this expansion with.

Topics Discussed

• Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers
• • Patch 5.4 - Futures Rewritten
  • Patch 5.5 - Death Unto Dawn - Part 1
  • Patch 5.55  - Death Unto Dawn - Part 2
  • Discussion of the Endwalker Media Tour